HOYTS ADDS ESPORTS ARENAS TO SELECTED CINEMAS

5th February, 2018

Nirvana for video gamers is here with Hoyts announcing a bundle of eSports arenas around Australia.

Professional video gamers will applaud the new partnership Hoyts has hammered out with Gfinity Esports.

The pairing of the Cinema complex giant and Elite online sports provider Gfinity is a natural one. Hoyts has the cinema venue expertise and Gfinity the kind of know how that already gives gamers more than 100 online tournaments each month.

Gfinity Australia will launch here in April with a prize pool of $450,00 an amount that is hardly small potatoes.

Teams will compete for the prize playing car-soccer game Rocket League, fighting game Street Fighter V and team-based first-person shoot ‘em up Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

The inaugural Gfinity Australia Elite Series will kick off and run for the entire season at a yet-to-be-built arena inside Hoyt’s Entertainment Quarter complex located at Moore Park in Sydney.

The season will run for seven weeks, and events will be held on weekends. There are two seasons scheduled for 2018.

While the new partnership provides a boost for esports in Australia, Hoyts told the Australian Financial Review it plans to use the arena for events for schools, universities and other community events as well as hubs and venues hosting games publishers.

Scott Russell, general manager of corporate solutions at Hoyts, said:

E-sport is moving to a much more community-fan based feel and away from the old idea of kids at home playing at a desk in the bedroom. Cinema going is a social activity so Esports and the way that it’s headed just works perfectly in that sense.

The new venues will be structured for broadcast and production for fans following the games online, along with spectator areas.

Written by:

Peter was formerly the Audio-Video Editor of the Herald Sun for over two decades. One of the most-respected tech and audio journalists in Australia, Peter brings his unparalleled experience and a unique story-telling ability to GadgetNET.

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